


Fear, Trust, Hope, and Being a Good Person

by Gelasia_Kidd



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Aborted Undertale Genocide Run, Abused Frisk, Fear of Death, Frisk Has Issues, Frisk Needs A Hug, Genderless Frisk, Genocide Frisk, Genocide Sans, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mental Breakdown, Protective Sans, Sans Has Issues, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Picks up the Pieces, Sans Remembers Resets, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Undertale Saves and Resets, scared frisk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 03:17:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8128337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gelasia_Kidd/pseuds/Gelasia_Kidd
Summary: Everyone is dead, and there is no hope left for the underground.
But Sans is starting to realize there is more to this than he thought when he discovered the human he intends to kill is a terrified, broken little child.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Little one shot for y'all

The scene was oddly poetic, as the dust covered human stood in the lit hallway, the golden stained glass casting a light on them as if they were a fallen angel. The bitterness welled within Sans at the memory of the long destroyed hope of the Angel of Prophecy. 

 

He wasn’t sinless, no, but never had he seen such destruction and death in the eternity of his entire life. It went beyond anything he could possibly fathom.

 

Taking in the empty eyed human, the filthy clothing they wore, the sharp new blade in their hand, and even the slight trembling of their form, his mouth turned up in a smile of equal loathing and self deprecation, and his eyes closed.

 

“so, i've got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change...?” he started slowly. “that everyone can be a good person, if they just try? heh heh heh heh…”

 

His laughter trailed off as he heard a clatter, and he opened his eyes to see the human on their knees, arms curled around them protectively, their shoulders slumped with despair. 

 

His brow furrowed and he took a step forward, steadfastly ignoring the flinch of the human as he approached. The human didn’t move, however, making no attempt to escape, and despite his desire to end the human, his curiosity was piqued. 

 

“Nonononono..” the human rambled, their voice hoarse from disuse. Sans found himself startled by their voice. Despite its roughness, it was the voice of a young child. They had dismissed the human as a child despite their striped clothing; A child could never be so brutal and strong, right?

 

But this was truly the voice of a child, young and frightened. The child turned up large, glistening eyes at Sans, as if fully seeing him for the first time. 

 

“I just wanted to be  _ safe,” _ they whimpered out. “Everyone tried to  _ hurt  _ me. I should have  _ known _ better. But M-mom, Toriel, she told me Asgore was out there hunting humans. That he’d  _ kill _ me. That they’d all  _ kill _ me. B-but..SHE KILLED ME FIRST!” The child keened.

 

“She was supposed to be  _ safe,” _ they continued. “And so I had to protect myself, right? But then she was  _ gone _ and it was  _ my fault  _ but I was  _ safe. _ But everyone just kept  _ hurting _ me.” 

 

They fell into broken sobs, heartbreakingly sad. Sans found himself stunned, unable to process what he was seeing. It’s not like he had been unaware of the child’s multiple deaths. But he only realized this after Papyrus.. And then, he didn’t care. He had watched several of those deaths himself, taking great pleasure in their pain. But this..

 

“but my bro, he was just trying to be your friend! why did you kill  _ him?? _ ” Sans snapped out, trying to find some middle ground.

 

It was like something broke in them when they cried out the next words.

 

“HE KILLED ME FIVE TIMES!” they shrieked, before curling into a ball. “And when he didn’t kill me he beat me within an inch of my life and threw me in a cold shed..” 

 

The sobs were still loud and keening despite the fact they were biting their sweater clad arm. Red was welling up on the light purple fabric, and suddenly Sans felt  _ protective,  _ pulling their arm away and taking them into his arms.

 

“stars, kid,” Sans murmured. “why didn’t you tell anyone?” 

 

“I..  _ sob _ .. Tried.. No one remembered..” they whined. “And then I’d die and they’d forget and then sometimes I died to  _ them _ instead.” 

 

Despite being disturbed by the sensation of dust on his bones, he ran a hand through the kids knotted hair. 

 

“...it’s not like it was anything new,” the kid mumbled quietly, defeated. “Just thought down here would be different..” 

 

The child seemed to descend in apathy that seemed far similar to himself to be comfortable, and he shuddered.

 

“come on kid, i’ll take you to my house, get you cleaned up,” Sans murmured. “this dust can’t feel good.. certainly doesn’t to me.” 

 

It wasn’t until he had pulled out one of his old, forgotten striped sweatshirts and taken the child to the bathroom to clean when they snapped out of their daze. 

 

He had grabbed the hem of their sweater and was pulling it off when the child  _ screeched, _ and he winced away the noise in a startled motion.

 

“Nonononono ..” the child said, locking up in a full meltdown, pupils dilated and a hundred yard stare. Attempting to pull at them caused them to start panickedly lashing out, and considering he had only 1 HP there was only one thing left to do. 

 

He froze them with his magic and lifted them, pulling the shirt off. Their eyes grew more frenzied but they couldn’t move that or their mouth in this position. What he saw made him almost drop the child hard on the floor, barely able to put them down carefully before releasing the magic.

 

“DON’T LOOK!!” the child said, trying to futilely cover themselves with their small hands. It didn’t hide anything.. The child was littered in scars, stripes across their back, small circular burns, and over their shoulder, someone had carved the words “worthless” into their back.  

 

No monster would have ever done that word, he knew. And the child had healed from their injuries here.. So this was from before.

 

“..shit,” Sans cursed, grabbing a towel quickly to wrap around the child. “it’s okay, you’re okay, calm down, it’s okay.”

 

He was saying this as much for himself as for the child. The significance of the markings were not lost on him-Human media had fallen before, and it was not only the happy stuff.

 

The shaking calmed as the panic left their system.

 

“..Don’t hurt me?” the child cried, so quietly that it was almost impossible to Sans to hear. 

 

“...ok,” Sans offered.

 

“..Why did they hurt me Sans?” they questioned pitifully. The use of his name for the first time gave him a pause, but he answered honestly.

 

“because they didn’t understand,” he told them in a soft voice.

 

“Could I have made them understand…?” the child asked again, sorrow lacing their tone.

 

“..we’ll never know now,” he said bitterly. 

 

The child pulled back, looking at him with an unfathomable gaze. The silence stretched on as they took in his crushing grief, before their eyes brighten in acknowledgement. 

 

“They were scared too, weren’t they?” they said, more of a statement than anything else. He gave them a single nod, too full of tired pain to talk.

 

“..We can know,” they finally said, letting the hands fall off their towel, and the fabric fall. This show of trust was almost lost on Sans, but his eyelights grew larger in confusion.

 

“..how..?” Sans said in a muted question.

 

“I.. I think I can start over, reset,” the child offered. “I can try again. B-but, I’m gonna need help. I can’t.. Can’t do this alone. I don’t want to be scared again.”

 

The realization filled the air around them, Sans eyes brightening in focus.

 

“i won’t let you do it alone,” Sans told them.

 

“Promise to protect me?” the child pled.

 

“i won’t make promises i can’t be sure to keep… “ Sans told them slowly. But before their disappointment could set in, he offered this. “but i can promise i’ll be there every step of the way. i won’t let you be alone, and we’ll do this together.” 

 

Their decision firmed up in their eyes, and in a movement that seemed to surprise them both, the child grabbed them in a hug, arms around his waist. 

 

_ “Thank you.” _

 

00000000000000000000000000000

 

“SANS!! WAKE UP YOU LAZYBONES!!” Papyrus shouted, voice going shrill through the house. 

 

Sans eyes flashed open immediately at the tone, and it was only moments before he had his brother in a hug. The taller skeleton was surprised but pleased to return the hug.

 

“ARE YOU OKAY??” Papyrus questioned worriedly, eyes looking down in a fretful look.

 

Sans smiled genuinely up at his younger brother. “yea bro, just a bad dream.” Papyrus eyes softened and he run his gloved hand over Sans skull briefly before putting on a stern look. 

 

“DON’T THINK THIS ALLOWS YOU TO GO TO SLEEP AT YOUR STATION AGAIN SANS!” Papyrus insisted firmly. Sans laughed, letting go, his eyes looking up amused.

 

“no promises bro,” Sans said in a joking tone. “can’t help it that i’m so  _ bone tired _ .”

 

“AUGH!” 

 

000000000000000000000000000000

Sans took a step forward towards the child in front of the bridge, taking in their dustfree appearance from behind.

 

**“d o n ‘ t   y o u   k n o w   h o w   t o   g r e e t   a   n e w   f r i e n d?”**

 

Before there was even a handshake, a small body flung itself at his waist, holding him and nuzzling his lowest rib, before pulling back, and taking his other hand, holding it.

 

“Hi! I’m Frisk the human!” they chirped up at him. His eye-smiled as the joy fully took over his face. 

 

“i’m sans the skeleton,” he replied. “and i’m glad to see you.” Frisk pulled him forward across the bridge. 

 

“Come on! We have puzzles to get to!” Frisk chirped, and he could do nothing else but follow.

 

“we sure do,” Sans said agreeably. And this was the biggest puzzle yet.

 

Oh well, he didn’t have anything better to do.

 

And he was filled with JOY. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many stories. So many. I am so scared to post them and disappoint people without updating.


End file.
